You Can Get Everything You Need from a Healthy Diet ‏/ Ray D. Strand, M.D.

I told my patients for years that they did not need to take supplements and that they could get everything they needed by eating a healthy diet. When I began to realize that RDA’s had nothing to do with the types of diseases I was trying to prevent, I had to rethink my decision not to recommend supplements. As I mentioned earlier, the optimal level of vitamin E is 400 IU. Why just not have my patients eat 400 IU of vitamin E. They would only need to eat 33 heads of spinach or 28 pounds of butter or 5 pounds of wheat germ each day to get that much vitamin E. The optimal level of vitamin C is about 1000 to 2000 mg daily (the RDA is only 60 mg). My patients would only have to eat 18 large oranges or 80 avocados to get that amount of vitamin C from their diet.

I certainly believe that we must supplement a healthy diet with 8 to 12 servings of fruits and vegetables along with those good fats and good proteins. However, there was no way my patients could receive health benefits from optimal levels of nutrients without supplementing their diet. It became very obvious to me that my patients needed to supplement their diet with high-quality, complete and balanced nutritional supplements for the best protection against chronic degenerative diseases.

RAY D. STRAND, M.D.

Specialist in Nutritional Medicine

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RDA's versus Optimal Levels ‏/ Ray D. Strand, M.D.

One of the reasons most physicians do not recommend supplements for their patients, even though studies show that nearly 70% of physicians are taking them themselves, is because they have been taught that all we need are the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of micronutrients. If you consume a healthy diet, it is certainly possible to get this level of nutrients. However, you must understand the origin of RDA’s. These RDA’s were developed in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s to establish the minimal amount of micronutrients required to prevent acute deficiency diseases like pellagra, scurvy, and rickets.

When I began studying about the possible health benefits of taking nutritional supplements, I was concerned about chronic degenerative diseases like heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s dementia, and macular degeneration. What I quickly learned was that RDA’s have absolutely nothing to do with chronic degenerative diseases. For example, the RDA of vitamin E is 30 IU; however, you don’t begin to see a health benefit until you supplement with at least 100 IU of vitamin E. This health benefit increases as you increase the amount of vitamin E supplemented. Most researchers in nutritional medicine now believe that the optimal level of vitamin E is 400 IU.

RAY D. STRAND, M.D.
Specialist in Nutritional Medicine

Contact me today for more information